After 12+ years, at last Peach Seed Monkey is a novel manuscript in search of an agent.

Omygoodness. The reality hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s been too long since I didn’t have to make my way to my computer or laptop to work on pages, like a dutiful duckling, instinctively following her mother’s call.

Feeling like the girl who cried wolf a few times. Not because I like to play tricks, but because I had no idea writing a novel would take this long. The creative process takes as long as it takes.

I believe in celebrating every milestone and always have to thank my editor, the erudite novelist, A.J. Verdelle. We started working together in 2012 after something I stumbled upon sent me looking for A.J. — this quote from Nikki Finney: “A.J. Verdelle teaches revision as an art.”I could not have arrived at this juncture without her.

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Since starting school at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, Haley has studied history and philosophy while continuing to pursue music. After meeting fellow classmate, Hunter Johns in a jazz improvisation class, the two began writing songs together. As the songs developed, the project blossomed into the 5 piece indie jazz band, ‘Grey Heron:’

After performing for several months on Hampshire’s campus plus Brooklyn and NYC, Grey Heron recorded an EP album made up of songs written by Haley Grey and Hunter Johns. They are on the brink of releasing their debut album and are out with their first single: “Home is an Airplane” available now on Bandcamp and soon on Soundcloud and Spotify.

We’re approach the 2018 Mid-term Elections on Nov 6. I hope you are voting for Democrats locally and nationally so we can TAKE BACK CONGRESS. I’ve been wearing my Obama t-shirt along with my Anna Pletcher for Marin District Attorney button. Many people say, “That’s refreshing to see. I sure do miss him.” to which I answer, the way he would: “Don’t cry: VOTE!”

This post takes us back to Obama campaigning for his second term. I went to see him in San Francisco. While standing in line for hours, I met a fired-up woman named Tura Franzen who has remained my friend and devoted PSM.blog Follower (Hey-hey Tura!) Check out the video I produced—at the end of the post

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Writers: wherever you are working away in your little secluded corner of the world, searching for just the right word, draft after draft, seeing President Obama’s Inaugural Address revisions will make you feel better. And remind us that it’s all about process. This photo was taken by White House photographer, Pete Souza: Read more…

Brownland Browsing

by Anita Jones

when you sit down you make a lap a place for something to happen cradle your plate at the potluck where they didn’t think enough to set up tables rock a baby to sleep bounce a toddler on your knee pat out the rhythm for juba-this-and-juba-that

when you stand up your lap disappears but the notion is always thereRead more…

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Boy how time flies. Already a month ago today that I saw President Obama at a reception at Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco.

At the same reception last April 20th, I volunteered with my buddies, Doreen and Nancy, working the will-call table. This year, I bought a ticket…and stood in that line. Plenty of time to make new friends…and get sick and tired of shouting protestors across the street beside Grace Cathedral. They definitely needed new writers: their chants were tired, uninspired and flat out lies: Read more…

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In the 1960s, living out my southern childhood amongst the gray walls of 325 Hazard Drive, it was enough to know that collard greens, black-eyed peas and rice were necessary to good luck in the New Year. I didn’t know anything about “customs” or “superstitions”, but peas and rice would bring change to jingle in your pocket and the greens were for folding money. I knew that, and everybody I knew knew that. It was also important for your first visitor of the year to be someone of the opposite sex (not a blood kin). My elder cousin Jessie was known to arrange with a female friend to knock on his door, leaving nothing to chance. Jessie passed away in 2010 at the age of 91 ~ having been the oldest living descendant of my paternal grandfather, Ras Jones’ twenty-one offsprings.

On my research visits home the past 5-6 years, I never missed a chance to interview Jessie. When I started writing Peach Seed Monkey in 2005, many of Jessie’s stories and his property in Putney, Georgia were the inspiration for story. He was three years older than my dad, Silas and they grew up more like brothers than nephew/uncle. My protagonist, Fletcher Dukes, is a composite of those two men and other male relatives of their generation— black men who came of age way before the Civil Rights Era and experienced a certain kind of America.

But back to the food ~

There’s certainly no shortage of info, lies and speculations out there about the origins of “Hoppin’ John” —as the black-eyed peas and rice are called—and I’ll leave it to you to search and seize the one that suits you. As for me, I’m happy knowing what I shared with you above. That basic knowledge (and the good eats) have sustained me since my mother, Irene and maternal Grandmama, Arlena stirred the pot of peas in the deep well of our old stove. Now there’s something to search ~ deep well! (The beauty of blogging, I haven’t thought of that word (or seen a deep well) in 50 years.)

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About Anita Gail

Writer, visual artist and oral tradition storyteller, Anita Gail was born and raised in Albany, Georgia, living in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1985. As a 2018-19 Affiliate Artist at The Headlands Center for the Arts, she is in the query phase for her debut novel, Peach Seed Monkey. The story was a Novella semi-finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.

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Art Installation

Open House as 2018-19 Affiliate Artist at Headlands Center for the Arts: studio art installation based on scene: “Sunday Dinner” from Peach Seed Monkey, my debut novel—now in search of an agent. To view gallery: Click on photo above.